A Love, A Life, Lost
by PandasWearGlasses
Summary: The Cullens are the perfect family. They bicker just the right amount, play baseball, enjoy meals as a family. They keep no secrets from each other. Except apparently everything they thought they knew about Carlisle's past is a lie, and now there's a new and mysterious human taking up more space in the Cullen home than he has any right to. The reunion of Carlisle and Harry
1. Chapter 1

Edward Cullen sat morosely behind the steering wheel of his Volvo. He sped silently and speedily through the damp and winding roads of Forks, Washington. Emmett sat in the front seat next to him and crammed into the back seat were the rest of his siblings. Bella, the love of his immortal life, was ensconced in her own truck, since as part of her punishment for running away to Italy Charlie had decided she was no longer allowed to accept rides from her boyfriend, nor was he allowed to visit her at the Swan residence during the duration of her grounding. Charlie's efforts were futile for the most part, since Edward still snuck in to see Bella nightly right under his nose, but there was nothing to be done for the car situation.

It was just another one of the many well-intentioned but misguided attempts the police chief was making to protect his daughter from the teenage boy he perceived as being a bad influence on her. To be fair, most teenagers would be conflicted about sneaking out at night, whereas Bella had fled the continent to see her at the time ex-boyfriend. Charlie's reluctance to see them back together was understandable, though of course his interference was unwelcome by all parties involved. So here Edward was stuck, driving his siblings all crammed in his small silver Volvo home from school, just as he used to do in his life pre-Bella.

He pulled onto the long gravelly driveway that led to their house. Jasper's distaste for Edward's current mood drifted through his mind, but he made no attempt to curb his emotions. Jasper could go hunting or something if Edward was bothering him. Rosalie's distaste for life in general also crossed him, but it was quickly overlapped by her delight in Bella's absence, further souring his already foul mood. Rosalie had once been his closest sibling, their shared upbringing forging a bond between them before the appearance of goofy Emmett, seer Alice or war-torn Jasper. It used to be serious Edward and serious Rosalie bonding over their mutual hatred of their vampirism, a bond that lasted even after Rosalie had found Emmett and grown to appreciate the path her life had taken.

Edward had been supportive at the time, happy that his sister had found happiness even if he hadn't. Perhaps that's why it hurt even more to know that Rosalie refused to grant him the same courtesy, letting her resentment and hatred of Bella drive a wedge between them and taint what should be the happiest time of his life. Edward contemplated going on a run himself to clear his mind, but vetoed that thought immediately as he didn't want to remain far from Bella on the off chance that she needed him.

He finally pulled up to the house, all of his siblings vanishing through the front door before he'd even put the car in park. He walked in slowly behind them, practicing his human pace. Rosalie and Emmett had disappeared into their bedroom for activities he was trying very hard to block out, and Alice and Jasper were set up with a chessboard. Though Alice could see Jasper's future moves, Jasper had enough of a mind for strategy that he was able to manipulate her decisions with moves he hadn't even made yet. Overall, they were pretty evenly matched.

Edward himself was about to drift to his piano so he could occupy his hands while he followed the match from his mind when the air was startled by a knock on the door. Everybody paused, scenting listening and tasting the very air and finding… nothing. There was no indication of their unplanned visitor even existing. Edward was beginning to doubt that the knock had even existed in the first place, but the memory was at the forefront of both Alice and Jasper's mind.

Edward noted uneasily that a steady heartbeat was noticeable if he listened closely through the thick wood of their front door, though any scent their guest had was kept outside by their thorough weather proofing, as it allowed no air in or out. The heartbeat, an indication that their visitor was a harmless human, should have been comforting, but it didn't explain the lack of crunching gravel or a purring engine that usually announce someone's approach. Even the quiet thrum of the heartbeat should have been audible much sooner, from several hundred feet down the road, yet somehow they had all missed it.

Edward probed gently with his mind to see who it was and what they wanted, but found nothing. He smiled slightly as he realized it was Bella, the only person whose mind he couldn't hear. His heart warmed as he realized she'd likely missed him and had been willing to risk Charlie's wrath to visit. He was slightly startled that he had been too preoccupied to hear the roar of her ancient truck on the driveway.

Mentally shrugging it off, he moved to open the door when a thought that was not his own flitted to the forefront of his mind. It was one of Alice's visions. She'd peered just moments into the future, watching Edward stride towards the door, open it and then… the vision went black. The whole sequence ran through again as Alice sought a different outcome, but it ended again in the same disconcerting blackness. Once more she frantically checked, this time with Alice herself answering the door, but the result was the same. Edward processed the visions anxiously, realizing that there was no reason Alice should be having trouble seeing Bella on the other side of the door.

Jasper, despite not having the same knowledge of the situation as either Alice or Rosalie, could tell from their uneasiness that something was wrong and summoned Emmett and Rosalie from their room, where they'd thankfully not had enough time to get very far at all.

"What?" Rosalie snapped irritably from the top of the stairs. Emmett followed not far behind, wearing nothing but his boxers and wearing a self-satisfied smirk that told them all far more than they needed to know. Edward ignored his thoughts as best as he could and jerked his head pointedly towards the door. Rosalie's mouth twisted into the start of a snarky question before she noticed the beating heart on the other side. She paused for a moment, listening, before her mouth twisted into a sneer of revulsion at the obvious sign of a human. "Who is it," she asked loftily, attempting to make both her distaste and disinterest apparent. All that was missing was the upturned nose and pouty lips and the image would have been complete.

"Alice can't see them, and I can't read their thoughts," Edward informed his siblings, not surprised when they all stiffened warily. Normally they would let Carlisle handle a situation like this, but the coven leader was at work, and Esme was in a city three hours away working on an architectural project. Edward, as the eldest childe of the coven, or at least as the one who had been a part of it the longest, was expected to step in instead. For some unknown reason, Edward found himself hesitant to fill the role.

Another round of knocks sounded at the door. Edward took a very human breath, before turning the handle and pulling the door open in one swift, seemingly confident movement.

Standing on the other side of the door, perched delicately on their wide porch was a boy, or perhaps a young man. His shoulders were hunched forward and his feet shuffled in the classic pose of nervousness. His head, topped in a scruffy black mop, jerked up when he heard the door opening. The face that peered up at him is handsome, if not very masculine, but there is something distinctly off about it. He just looks sickly. His skin is too pale, his cheeks gaunt, and there are dark bruises around his eyes that are even worse than the bruises that form around Edward's own black, unfed eyes.

The stranger looked up to meet Edward's examination with a strangely piercing gaze, freezing the vampire in place. Those glowing green orbs locked Edward's body for a split second, prolonged in Edward's racing mind. The boy suddenly shuffled back nervously, as if he didn't possess the power to freeze a hundred year old vampire with just a look. His arms came up protectively around his chest, breaking the moment, his verdant green eyes returning their gaze to the floor.

"Oh, hi, um…" he cleared his throat, before continuing in a raspy tenor, "Is Carlisle, um, Cullen here?"

Edward quirked one elegant eyebrow, in an attempt to appear in control of the situation. "Who, might you be?" He drawled with just a touch of the arrogance he'd sifted out from others' conceited mind, mostly Rosalie's. He wasn't at all keen on giving this stranger and potential threat any information on his sire or coven he didn't have to.

Blood rushed to the boy's face, staining it the ruddy red of embarrassment. Edward watched warily, waiting for the inevitable ache in his teeth and flash of fire in his throat that usually accompanied such an overt reminder that there was blood, real fresh human blood just waiting for him to take. He was even more wary when the ache didn't come, and the scent of _food_ never hit him.

"That's, um, I'm Harry. Carlisle is, that is…. He's not here?" Though he'd still been fighting off an abashed flush when he'd begun speaking, the short time it'd taken him to return to the topic of Carlisle allowed a tint of desperation to invade his voice and drag at his expression.

"Carlisle is at work," Edward answered evenly. He watched, a little aghast as the boy's whole body seemed to deflate. Like a balloon with a puncture, all of the nervous tension drained from his shoulders and limbs, but so did whatever other forces that seemed to be holding him up. Now he looked like a child whose body was too heavy for him, a puppet with the strings cut. The liveliness in his eyes, already scarce, fled entirely, clearly not up to the challenge of battling back the dead depression that already infected every other part of his countenance.

From Jasper's mind he examined the boy's emotions. The desperation that had peeked out just moments before was definitely there, but it was almost overwhelmed by crushing depression and loneliness. Swirling in the dark swatches of emotion were flashes of guilt and hope as well.

 _INVITE HIM IN,_ Alice screamed into his mind. It took him a moment to realize that she'd probably thought it several times, and he'd failed to notice, consumed as he was by his own thoughts.

He gave a cursory glance over the thoughts of his other siblings. They were all suitably wary, especially Jasper who was paying far more attention to the guilt the boy felt than Edward personally found necessary, but none of them seemed opposed to inviting him in, Rosalie excepted of course.

"Carlisle will be home in just a little while. His shift is ending soon," Edward lied. "Why don't you come in and wait for him?" He stepped aside to allow the boy passage into the house. The boy hesitated for only a moment for silently nodding his acquiescence and shuffling into the Cullen home.

"I'm Alice," the shortest Cullen introduced herself, with just a touch more reservation than she normally had: reservation born from a lack of knowledge and an innate wariness towards anyone her vision couldn't lock onto.

"Harry," the boy intoned, eyes downcast. He didn't even give the house a cursory glance. If Esme were here she might be affronted.

"I'm Edward by the way," the eldest Cullen introduced himself. The room fell into an awkward silence. Emmett and Rosalie stood at the top of the stairs, within sight but unnoticed by their guest. Jasper meanwhile stood as a silent sentinel by Alice's side, but made no move to introduce himself, his own unease probably furthering the awkward atmosphere without his knowledge.

"Can I get you a drink?" Alice finally broke the silence, "some water or tea perhaps?"

"That would be lovely, yes," Harry responded rather tonelessly.

Edward could have slapped himself when he realized they were still standing in the doorway. Esme would have his head for his lack of hospitality. "Please have a seat," he said, ushering the newly dubbed Harry into the living room while Alice disappeared into the kitchen to make a phone call under the guise of preparing a cup of tea. Edward settled himself across from Harry on the settee, where they remained in silence.

In the next room over Edward could hear the clunk of the kettle being set on the stovetop, the tic tic tic of the knob clicking the flame to life. Alice rustled in her pocket for her phone and punched in the two buttons required to speed dial Carlisle.

"Hello, Alice?" Carlisle answered in his usual jovial tone, though it was brushed by confusion at the uncharacteristic call— uncharacteristic, but not yet worrisome.

"Carlisle," Alice muttered rapidly in hushed and urgent tones, "there's a person here to see you, and neither Edward's nor my abilities work on him."

"That's unusual to say the least," Carlisle noted lightheartedly, but there was a hint of concern in his voice that wasn't there before. "I don't suppose this visitor has a name?"

"Harry, no last name," Alice informed him, "He's pretty short, pale, green eyes, dark hair."

The line fell dead silent.

The long pause extended worryingly, on and on, until finally Carlisle heaved a shuddering breath.

"Carlisle?" Alice's voice trembled with concern.

"Don't let him leave," Carlisle growled suddenly, fierce, harsh, and altogether unexpected. "Whatever you do, don't you dare let him leave."

"Carlisle, who is he?" Alice tried to ask, but the line went dead.

Edward could help the wave of apprehension that washed over him at Carlisle's terse words. He didn't need to peruse his siblings' thoughts to know they were equally alarmed.

Alice returned shortly with a full tea tray, one cup for their guest and a handful of cups for the rest of the present Cullens, if only so they could maintain their façade of human hosts. Harry accepted his cup graciously as did Edward and Jasper. All four of them proceeded to sit immobile without taking a single sip. It was only five minutes later that Carlisle's thoughts appeared on the periphery of Edward's mental range, indicating he was within a few miles of them.

Carlisle's mind was in total disarray, flitting through thoughts and memories and images and flashes faster than Edward could process them. Predominantly, his mind featured an image of Harry—a version so very different from the boy presently. The image in Carlisle's mind appeared about the same age, 16 or 17, but that was where the similarities ended. Carlisle's memory was happy, with a full face, pale but creamy skin and a lively, mischievous glint in his vibrant viridian eyes. The picture was nothing at all like the phantom before him.

Finally the sound of Carlisle's car speeding up the driveway became audible. He spun to an aggressive stop in front of the house, the sound of spraying gravel alerting even Harry's human ears that the Cullen patriarch had arrived. He shot to his feet as Carlisle sprinted at inhuman speed to the door. The vampire slapped aside the heavy mahogany door, not bothering to stop it as it slammed against the wall, rattling the windows.

The world held its breath as green met gold. The Cullen children watched, entranced as their sire froze in the doorway, his chest heaving with anxious breath.

"Harry," he whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

Snow was falling delicately from the sky, leaving a light dusting on Edward's exposed hair and shoulders. The rest of the coven, sans-Carlisle, was back in the warmth and shelter of the Denali Coven's home. He relished the cold, one of the few sensations that had an effect on his near infallible physiques. He would never actually get uncomfortably cold, but he could at least bask in the contrast of temperatures. His siblings didn't feel the same way, often avoiding the cold and snow, unwilling to get wet or muddy.

His thoughts turned to his beloved Bella, as they often did. He knew Bella didn't realize they could get dirty. Just because vampires stopped sweating along with most of their other bodily functions didn't mean they couldn't get dirty from external sources. Edward actually had to shower quite frequently. Emmett and Rosalie had to shower even more often with all the substances they excreted on each other. He sighed once, as he realized he was allowing his thoughts to trail off on meaningless tangents, desperate to distract himself from the matter at hand.

The fact of the matter was that Carlisle had banished them from Forks. A mysterious man named Harry (that he'd never heard mention of, not even in Carlisle's _thoughts_ ) had appeared at their door, and Carlisle had immediately sent them away from their home. He hadn't come with them, and hadn't contacted them since.

* * *

Carlisle stood frozen in the doorway, just staring. Raised eyebrows and a gaping mouth made him the perfect picture of disbelief. HIs thoughts were silent, as if he'd been shocked dumb. His children eyed him curiously, waiting to finally have the answer to their multitude of questions.

Edward, keeping an attentive eye on Carlisle's mind, knew the exact moment that he snapped out of his shock. His whole body sagged, his expression morphing into something of desperation and pure desire. His mind kick-started, filling with a single thought that fell from his lips with a breathy, "Harry."

Carlisle sprinted forward at a speed hard to follow even in his children's eyes and tugged the dark-haired male into his arms, crushing him closely to his chest. "Oh Harry," he breathed again, this time his face pressed into a crest of dark hair.

Harry swallowed once "Carlisle I-" he broke off for a moment, "I'm so sorry, Carlisle." He rested his head against the broad plane of Carlisle's chest, Carlisle's hands resting securely on his neck and the small of his back.

"Shh, Harry. It's alright. Everything will be all right now," the blond vampire susurussed soothingly.

"I wanted to-" Harry murmured quietly before his words cut off as he collapsed entirely. Carlisle caught him quickly before lowering him carefully to the ground.

Carlisle was cold all over and an uncomfortable tight feeling squeezed his chest even as his thoughts went hazy and swirled incoherently with worry. Only his centuries of work as a medical professional enabled him to follow through the automatic procedures of checking Harry's pulse and breathing.

His children startled as Carlisle burst into sudden laughter. What began as light chuckling grew and grew until it bordered on hysteria. He pressed his face into Harry's black mop to muffle his laughter until he finally calmed enough to stop.

"Is he alright?" Edward asked hesitantly, not able to make sense of his sire's thoughts. All of his family knew ways to hide their thoughts from him, but Carlisle rarely employed his own methods, except for to hide birthday presents from him.

Carlisle had returned his attention promptly to the human before him. "Oh Harry," he whispered again, finally taking in the deathly pale skin and sunken eyes. His hands came up to brush at a too prominent cheek bone before stroking the nearly back bruises that marred Harry's eyes. "When was the last time you slept love?"

"I promise I won't leave you alone again." With that vow made, Carlisle scooped the male into his arms and swept up the stairs into his own bedroom, allowing Harry's head to loll comfortably on the blond's shoulder so he could snuggle close.

Carlisle didn't even have a spare word or glance to give to his children. His thoughts turned to them, for a fraction of a second, just long enough for him to catch Edward's attention.

 _Take your siblings to the Denali coven. Take Esme with you, and for God's sake do not let her into this house._

Edward wanted to protest. He wanted to fight this strange, inexplicable order. He certainly wanted to avoid leaving Carlisle alone with this threat that was consuming his father's mind. "But Carlisle," Edward said aloud, not at all sure how he was going to continue his protest.

Carlisle's thoughts didn't even flit to Edward, though he had to have heard him, focused as he was on tucking a silent Harry beneath a thick duvet, the type of which Edward hadn't even realized they had owned, so unnecessary was it for their vampiric lives, or even the illusion of their human ones. It was a human luxury, pure and simple.

"Carlisle," Edward called again, more insistently.

Now _Edward,_ Carlisle's tone brooked no argument.

And so, Edward, against his better judgment, and against his gut, herded his protesting siblings to the car, collected Esme from her job site three hours away, and took them to Denali.

* * *

Now here Edward was in the middle of Alaska, three weeks later trying to sort out his feelings on the matter. Three weeks had passed without a single phone call or text message from Carlisle.

His siblings were furious with him. The confusion and strange energy on the day of the incident had made them easy to herd into the car without much of a fuss. He took them from their home and sire and they went along with it, believing that Carlisle had given Edward some sort of explanation in addition to his instructions- something that Edward found reasonable and sane. For days they had been frustrated with Edward for not sharing this reason with them, but this frustration quickly turned to fury as they realized he not only withheld Carlisle's thoughts on the matter, but that he'd removed them from their home without any logical reason or reassurance of Carlisle's safety.

Rosalie hadn't spoken to him in days. Alice, when she wasn't distracted by the debilitating headaches she received from trying to look into Carlisle's apparently nonexistent future, would glare frostily at Edward and call him rude names in her mind. He was pretty certain that if she were not so preoccupied with her concern and worry for Carlisle she would be planning some more tangible retaliation against him.

As concerning as Carlisle's invisibility in Alice's inner eye was, it was not yet cause for panic. It seemed as though only Carlisle's immediate future was missing. He was still present in the baseball game they would have in six months, and he was still there in the vision Alice persisted in using to show that Bella's turning was inevitable. It was just a lazy Sunday afternoon, Bella and Edward occupying the couch, Bella's eyes the golden amber of an animal-feeding vampire, ALice and Jasper on the floor using the coffee table to play chess, and Carlisle win the armchair with a stack of medical journals on the end table beside him.

The vision hadn't changed at all, which was comforting, but it didn't go far enough in reassuring the seer that Carlisle was not in any present danger. He knew that Jasper and Emmett had resolved to run back to Forks if Carlisle didn't contact them in the next three days. Edward himself was considering joining them. The whole situation just felt wrong. Carlisle wasn't one to give orders and expect them to be followed blindly. Plus, he'd never so much as mentioned a Harry, much less one he cared about enough to kick his whole family out of their home for.

On the other end of the spectrum, and nearly as worrying, was Esme's response to the whole thing. Their concern for her was not at all easily mastered. She'd been very confused when they'd collected her from her project. They'd done their best to bring her up to speed on the situation, but none of them had quite been able to capture the strange feeling they each had about it all. She herself hadn't chimed in, one way or another, but she'd fallen into a state of melancholy and spent most of her days silently looking out the window and reminiscing of different times she spent with Carlisle. According to Jasper there was an undertone of loss and loneliness beneath her apathetic facade, which only served to put the Cullen children further from their rapidly fleeing peace of mind.

Dwelling on these thoughts wasn't benefiting Edward any, so he stood and dusted off the powdery snow, and took up a run back to the house. About three miles out he started picking up the first faint whispers of thought. He couldn't quite make them out, but their tone set him on edge. There was something frantic and panicked about them. Alice's thoughts were restless, shifting and surging, a sure sign she was actively searching the future. Edward felt panic scrambling in his chest like fingers digging in his heart and tugging at his ribs. He put on a fresh burst of speed to bring him into range properly, finally able to make out the thoughts telling him… Esme had vanished.

* * *

Heyo. Sorry I haven't given a big reveal yet. Hope you enjoyed it regardless. Comments and criticism greatly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

Explicit sex scenes ahead

* * *

Carlisle watched Harry with a close and devoted eye. His gaze caressed the gaunt face, now stained a rosy pink as Harry was warmed by the heavy covers Carlisle had tucked him under. The blond reached a shaking hand out to brush back a few locks of unruly black hair from Harry's scarred forehead. Even with Harry's delicate and tangible form in front of him, the tantalizing sound of his beating heart whispering to him, the soothing rush of his breath rising and falling comforting him, and the mouthwatering scent of his flowing blood wafting into the air as if with the sole purpose of taunting Carlisle with the one thing he couldn't have (for now)... Even with all that, Carlisle still couldn't quite believe the situation.

It was too surreal, too much like his waking fantasies: the ones he indulged in when his children were out hunting or shopping and he had a moment to himself. He'd close his eyes and picture Harry returning to him, stepping into his arms and promising he'd never need to leave again. Then he pictured Harry meeting his coven, his family, and fitting right into it as the head of the household and loving father Harry always wanted to be. The kids would love Harry, look up to him and look after him, the way they did Esme. (He pushed that thought away immediately. He had no desire to be thinking of Esme at all in the place where Harry was always meant to be.)

The fantasies kept him together. They kept him sane and gave him hope, but recently they'd been beginning to drive him mad. Every time he emerged from one of these perfect scenes the desperation only grew stronger. Yes, they reminded him that one day Harry would be back home where he belonged, but they also planted the seed of doubt that told him Harry would never be back. Those days the fantasies taunted him, jabbing at him with what could have been, if he'd only been a better mate, and looked after Harry, preventing him from being taken like any _good_ mate would have.

It had been nearly three centuries since he'd lost Harry. When they'd first been separated he'd nearly driven himself mad with worry, but the knowledge his little love would soon come back to him comforted him. Yet when the decades had rolled past and Harry still hadn't been returned to him, he began to doubt.

It was only in the last century of so that he'd created his makeshift family to distract him, no longer able to stand the pain and unshakeable loneliness. He felt a stab of guilt for trying to ease his loneliness when he knew there'd be no one to help Harry the same way, but reassured himself with the knowledge that the family he was building would be for Harry too.

Recently though, not even his family's presence and crazy antics were helping to distract him from his missing mate, and Harry's absence was weighing even heavier on him. Edward's belief that he'd found his mate in Bella sparked a fresh wave of loneliness and pain that made his fantasies all the more necessary, and all the more detrimental to his sanity.

And so, now that Carlisle sat with his mate he couldn't quite manage to believe that it was really happening and he hadn't just cracked. Nevertheless, his eyes remained affixed to Harry, determined not to let him out of his sight, lest his little mate disappear and prove the entire thing to be an elaborate hoax concocted by his own desperate unconscious.

Several times in the past two weeks Carlisle heard his phone ring, but he'd left it in his briefcase, and that had remained abandoned in his car. He'd been too eager in his rush to see Harry to bother gathering his from the seat next to him. He couldn't bare to leave his little human alone in such a vulnerable state and entirely unattended, so he resolved to leave the phone until Harry was awake and capable of looking after himself for a few minutes. The calls remained unanswered for several days until the battery of the phone finally petered out and the intrusive sound of the persistent ringing fell blessedly silent.

The rest of his coven would get their questions answered soon enough. There was no need for him to disrupt these precious and private moments of reacquaintance with his love, especially when he'd not even woken up as of yet.

As it was, Carlisle was unable to pry himself away for even a moment, eying the sleeping imp on the bed with no small amount of concern. It had already been two weeks since Harry had made his way back to him, and also two weeks since he'd been awake. This of course was abnormal. People didn't normally sleep for two weeks straight, but people also weren't Harry.

Carlisle contented himself with checking Harry's vitals frequently and watching over him constantly so he could be there when Harry woke up. So far, he'd been rewarded twice by Harry's stirring, shifting restlessly in his sleep and coming close to waking. Carlisle had been there both times to card his fingers soothingly through the raven hair until Harry had dipped back into a peaceful sleep.

Both times he'd been struck by the conflicting and frustrating emotions of worry over Harry's continuing unconsciousness and pleasure at seeing Harry get some much-needed rest. Carlisle even had the delight of watching as the haggard bruises ringing his beloved's eyes vanished and some much needed color returned to his sallow skin.

He was still excessively thin, his gaunt cheeks and sharp cheekbones were a testament to that, but Carlisle knew that was a problem that could wait. Of course, if Harry were a true human Carlisle would be setting up all manner of medical equipment, including an IV drip, a feeding tube, a catheter and a plethora of monitoring systems. Fortunately for them both, Harry was no average human and so he had no fear on that front for now.

So Carlisle was reduced to watching and waiting. Finally, 13 hours into his 14th day of waiting, Harry's heart rate began to rise. His shallow breathing sped up and his fidgets increased. Carlisle leapt up and grasped Harry's hand firmly, working hard to make sure he didn't crush the delicate bones. Harry tossed and wriggled restlessly for nearly 15 minutes, 15 agonizing minutes, until finally with a massive jaw-cracking yawn, his eyelids blearily fluttered open.

His green eyes met Carlisle's anxious amber ones. He blinked a few times, struggling to process the sight before him.

"Carlisle!" he shouted suddenly. He flung himself from the bed straight into his mate's arms. Carlisle chuckled delightedly, all the worry that had been congealing in his chest melting away like warm butter.

"Harry," Carlisle murmured, pressing his lips into the crest of Harry's hair. Only, once his lips had touched Harry's body he couldn't seem to stop.

The relief he felt at having Harry in his arms, whole and hale was overwhelming. With the gut-wrenching worry finally dissipating into thin air, other things he'd been distracted from were finally taking up the bulk of his attention.

For example, Harry's tantalizing scent, easy to ignore earlier when he feared his mate was on his deathbed, was suddenly filling his nostrils and making his mouth water. The primal, animalistic part of his brain that earlier had been screaming at him to _protect_ when his mate was still vulnerable was now reminding him that Harry's scent lacked a distinct element of Carlisle in it. That needed to be remedied immediately.

Harry's sooty eyelashes and plump lips, the flat planes of his chest and the pert, soft flesh of his bum and thighs were all suddenly magnets to his hands and lips.

Now that Carlisle's lips had touched Harry's magnetic body, he found himself unable to resist the pull. He peppered a hundred soft kisses over Harry's face: his eyelids, nose, cheekbones, chin, relishing in Harry's soft sighs.

His hands drifted of their own accord, one shifting up to cup the back of Harry's tantalizing neck, and the other clamped firmly onto Harry's pert bottom. He silenced Harry's surprised squeak, sealing his mouth over those luscious lips, swallowing the sound down like a drowning man. Harry quickly issued a low moan and Carlisle swallowed that down as well.

The vampire growled, forcing his tongue into Harry's sweet mouth. It was torturously delicious. His tongue was surrounded by warm, wet flesh, all of it pulsing with the sweet blood he _needed_ to taste, all of it belonging to his mate, _his_ Harry.

His tongue licked and tasted, plundering the pliant space and viciously forcing pleasure on the male in his arms, drawing unwilling moans and whimpers. He took all of the air from his mate's body, delighting in the desperate and needy pants his little mate made against his lips.

Carlisle's hands began to wander again, running up and down his mate's thighs and chest, stroking his back, pinching his bum, squeezing his thighs.

God Carlisle loved pinching. He loved the startled squeaks and embarrassed blushes it drew from Harry. He loved to inflict the sharp but harmless pain on his little love. His fingers acted as a sorry but competent substitute for his teeth, so when he aches to nip and bite his love his fingers took their place instead. His fingers quested ruthlessly, ignoring Harry's indignant eyes, finding soft flesh and tugging it sharply when Harry's least expected it.

Carlisle was never disappointed by Harry's reactions in the past, and now, when he trapped a strip of of soft thigh between his thumb and his forefinger he still wasn't disappointed. Harry, who for the most part had been too overwhelmed by the sensations his mate had been providing to do more than moan needily and clutch at Carlisle's shirt, suddenly yelped and nearly lept clean off of Carlisle's lap. Only Carlisle's firm hand on his waist kept him in place. The brunette glared meanly at his Adonis, but Carlisle didn't give him time to dwell on it, his mouth immediately reclaiming Harry's and his fingers resuming their quest, pulling Harry back into the haze of pleasure.

It wasn't enough though. None of it was enough. He could rub himself up and down and all over Harry but it wouldn't be enough.

Quite without warning, Carlisle flipped them back on to the bed, pinning Harry to the mattress. They paused for just a moment, Carlisle panting and eyeing his prey calculatingly, Harry watching his vampiric mate loom over him, panting helplessly and wondering just what exactly his blonde Adonis had planned. Then Carlisle pounced.

Carlisle's lips trailed over Harry's chest, leaving icy burns and shining trails of venom in his wake.

Both of their boxers were torn away with a blink of the eye. Harry was too lost in his haze of pleasure to even notice, much less stop it. Carlisle clamped both of his hands onto Harry's hips, holding them perfectly still, despite Harry's desperate attempts to writhe and buck into the pleasure.

Carlisle admired his lover's erect cock, lying hot and heavy between his legs. He buried his head in the lovely juncture where Harry's thigh met his hip. It was perfectly made for him to run his tongue along the nice deep groove and inhale his mate's musk… except that Harry still smelled wrong.

Even after Carlisle had trailed venom all over Harry's body, he still smelled completely wrong. With a furious growl he pulled back. He climbed forward so he was straddling his mate's chest, holding himself up with his powerful sinewy thighs.

Carlisle's hand found his own cock, squeezing and pumping it furiously. Harry watched with an apt single-mindedness, his own member nearly purple with need, but he knew better than to disrupt Carlisle when he was trapped in this animalistic state of mind.

So instead of reaching a hand down to stroke himself, or leaning forward to take his lover's cock in his mouth and taste him, as he so desperately wanted to, he lay still: wanting and waiting. He watched with half-lidded eyes until Carlisle spurted his release with gritted teeth all over Harry's chest. Harry waited a moment to see what Carlisle would do next, but it quickly became apparent that Carlisle wasn't done.

As soon as the last of his orgasm wracked through his body, he set out to a new task with a single-minded determination.

His fingers plunged into the still hot seed and began to spread it, pressing it obscenely into Harry's skin. One hand pinned Harry to the bed to halt his helpless squirming, desperate as he was to escape the sudden sensory overload. His other hand trailed sensually, all along Harry's body, finding his most sensitive spots, working him up to the brink but not letting him fall over. Harry nearly sobbed under Carlisle's attack, but Carlisle continued, teasing him relentlessly but not giving him the release he needed. Carlisle spread his essence into Harry's neck and down his thighs, massaging it into the globes of his butt, imprinting the scent of it wherever he could.

Carlisle rolled one finger through a particularly large glob, coating it, and without warning plunged it into the greedy hole that lay between Harry's cheeks. The little human positively howled in pleasure, tears gathering in his eyes.

Carlisle attempted to soothe him, craning up to lick away the stray tears that Harry couldn't contain, but did not relent, fucking his finger in and out of the tight hole, pressing in deep and circling, until he was finally satisfied his scent was as deep in Harry as he could get it. He pulled his clean finger from the needy hole, delighting in the way it clenched around him, desperate to keep him there.

"Carlisle _please,"_ Harry sobbed. Carlisle couldn't suppress his smirk.

He gathered the last of the extra seed onto his hand. Carlisle pressed his nose once more into the groove of Harry's thigh, growling in satisfaction. Harry's scent was finally _right._

Carlisle wrapped his cum-coated palm around Harry's weeping cock, giving the final piece of Harry's body a thorough coating in Carlisle's scent. He pumped it twice before deciding to finally give his little human much needed relief. He wrapped his lips on the very tip of the head, the human's eyes rolling back in his head at the sensation. Carlisle gave one hard suck and Harry came, his vision white and body spasming, flooding Carlisle's mouth.

Carlisle drank it all down, glad to welcome his mate into his body, sucking every last drop from him until Harry fell limp.

When Harry came to some moments later, he noted with relief that Carlisle was staring at the ground abashedly. His gentle and adoring mate had returned to him now that his mating frenzy had abated. Their lovemaking had been mind-blowing, to be sure, but Harry didn't think he could take another round of pleasurable torture quite so soon.

He was completely boneless, and already feel himself succumbing to Morpheus' call. Somehow he found the energy to reach up and thumb away a small fleck of cum that had mysteriously made its way to Carlisle's cheek bone. The touch brought Carlisle's eyes back to his mate.

"I'm sorry Harry," Carlisle began abashedly, "I didn't mean to-" He was forced to stop when Harry brought his sullied thumb up to his lips and sucked it into his mouth. Carlisle swallowed heavily.

"It was amazing," Harry assured him. "Come lie with me," he commanded, tugging Carlisle down. He snuggled firmly into his mate's arms before falling deeply asleep.

Harry slept for a full two days after their carnal reunion. Carlisle, despite his embarrassment over his complete and utter loss of control was quite pleased with the state of his life right now.

He normally hated when he succumbed to the primal mating urges. He wanted to make their coupling special, to drive Harry wild with need and pleasure and then follow through. Instead he turned into a scent obsessed beast focusing on his own needs and only giving Harry a pathetic blow job.

He was almost glad Harry slept for two days after. It gave him time to move past his embarrassment and promise himself to do the thing right next time.

It also took him embarrassingly long to work up the willpower to clean Harry off. He _knew_ Harry would be more comfortable without dry and itchy cum caked all over his body, but he'd been embarrassingly pleased by the sight and smell of it, so it had taken nearly a whole day before Carlisle could even consider wiping Harry down.

When Harry finally woke, it was nothing like the first time. There was no slow rise to consciousness. Harry's brain kicked on suddenly, memories of his last actions flooding back to him. Carlisle startled when Harry scrambled out of the bed frantically.

"Harry!?" Carlisle called out alarmed.

"Don't you _Harry?_ me! How dare you! You- you-"

"What-" Carlisle was bewildered.

"On what planet did you think it would be okay to just hop in the sack with me after we've spent centuries apart. And damn it, I didn't even stop you because I was too- too-" Harry cut himself off with a screech of frustration.

"Harry?" Carlisle, asked, terror building in his chest, "I'm so sorry. I don't understand, you didn't want to…?"

"Your wife Carlisle," Harry snarled belligerently, "Have you forgotten your lovely wife? The mother of your adopted children! I'm a lot of things but a homewrecker has never been one of them."

"Esme?" Carlisle asked a bit dumbly. He scanned the pained look on Harry's face and the angry tears making his eyes bright. It suddenly clicked. "No Harry, just _no._ You have it all wrong. I would never cheat on you with Esme, or with anyone for that matter. She's not my wife or my lover, she's just another member of my coven.

" _Don't do this to me._ Don't _lie_ to placate me."

"I'm not-"

" _No._ You _moved_ on." Harry snapped furiously. Seeing the pained and confused expression on Carlisle's face he paused for a moment to recollect himself and calm down. Taking a deep breath, he began to explain.

"I'm not claiming it didn't hurt, because it did, but I understood. I valued your and happiness and well-being above all else. You moved on, and I understood, and still understand. You have a good life now, with a good family. I don't expect you to leave them for me. I've caused you nothing but pain and heartache." Harry turned to hide his tears, back hunched defensively.

Carlisle stared numbly for a few moments as Harry gathered himself and started to move towards the doorway.

"If you take one more step," he finally managed to choke out, "I'm tying you to the damn bed for the next three centuries."

Harry spluttered incoherently. Carlisle took advantage of the moment to stalk menacingly, one foot slowly in front of the other with a slinking gait that made him look exactly like the predator he was. He grabbed Harry's wrists roughly, pinning him to the wall.

"How dare you!? How dare you try to belittle the time we had together. How dare you try to reduce the happiest moments of my life to 'nothing but pain and heartache,'" his tone got particularly sharp. "How dare you doubt my all-consuming love for you. How dare you insinuate that I could ever move on, that I could ever even look at any other creature as a sexual being after I'd tasted your sweet lips," Carlisle murmured, brushing his lips softly against Harry's ear, delighting in the way it made Harry's breathing tremble.

"What foolish thoughts are going through your head that you honestly thought I could replace you? Have you forgotten that you're my soul mate? The one person I value above all else, my well-being and life included. I'd take a thousand years of heart-ache if it meant I could hold you in my arms for one second. Seeing you again is healing the festering wound in my heart. How could you think that an inconvenience?"

It pained Carlisle to see the honest confusion on his mate's face. Had he not been a good mate? He must not have made his feelings clear. He'd failed to raise his love's self esteem enough for him to comprehend that someone could truly feel unconditional love for him. Didn't he know that nothing could ever match his beauty, his caring nature and his overall sexiness.

Of course Carlisle knew the answer was no. Harry might never believe it as long as he lived.

Harry met Carlisle's eyes hesitantly, his pain visible for his mate to see. Carlisle pressed his forehead to his mates, letting his mind and body fall open, allowing Harry to see the truth of his words in his expression.

"But you, you've moved _on_ Carlisle. I wasn't here so you turned a whole coven of vampires to keep you company instead, _including_ a lovely wife who is apparently the perfect mate that I never was," Harry said a little desperately, clearly unsure now.

"Harry _no._ You're wrong," Carlisle said as firmly as he could, his voice shaking with fear. "Esme doesn't fit in my life perfectly because she's not you. I would never try to replace you."

"Why would you even turn her if you didn't want…."

Carlisle's heart ached at the desolate tone, but he still faltered at the question. "Because of the crow!"

Harry froze for a moment, staring at Carlisle, letting the words sink in. They settled on him like lead, his body suddenly too heavy for him to hold up. "A crow," he muttered lifelessly, "Of course there was a fucking crow." He laughed humorlessly.

"I don't understand Harry. I thought you were choosing Esme. I thought you were choosing all of our-"

"Stop." Harry cut in suddenly.

"Harry?" Carlisle queried bemusedly.

"Please Carlisle, I don't want to talk about this anymore," Harry informed him tiredly. "It doesn't matter anymore. I understand. No, I actually do," he assured the vampire when he looked about to protest.

"Does this mean you didn't choose her?"

"It hardly matters now. You- you swear there's nothing between you two?"Harry worried his bottom lip.

Carlisle wrapped his arms around Harry, securing him safely within the the blanket of his arms "I could never betray you Harry. I never laid a finger on Esme. I've never laid a finger on anyone but you, of course."

"Of course," Harry agreed, but it was clear from the distant look in his eyes he wasn't really listening.

"Why don't you go take a cat nap. You're exhausted."

"i just woke up," Harry complained, stifling a yawn.

"Yes, but your body has been without rest for a long time. It needs everything it can get right now," Carlisle informed him, leading him back to bed, suppressing his relieved sigh now that the immediate danger had passed. "Of course, if you don't think you can fall asleep there are plenty of ways I can tire you out," Carlisle quipped with a devious smirk.

* * *

There you have it!

This chapter took quite a long time, but it was also significantly longer than the last two. I also assure you that I was working on it nonstop. I wrote like 6 different versions of this.

This should give you just a bit of insight on the relationship between Harry, Carlisle and Esme. Suffice to say, it's complicated.

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome!


	4. Chapter 4

Edward stopped just outside the house with no small amount of trepidation. His siblings knew he was there; they had heard his approach, and he could hear their frantic thoughts.

He knew he needed to step through:move into the house so they could discuss the situation aloud and begin to plan their possible courses of action. They surely needed to tell Carlisle. Alice needed to try and find Esme's future, they could attempt scent tracking, or maybe the manipulate the GPS in her cell phone.

Could they even disregard the possibility of either the Volturi or Victoria or even a rogue? She'd never been directly targeted by any of them...but there was the mysterious Harry, Carlisle clearly wanted to keep the two of them apart… Esme had been feeling down lately, had she left? Why didn't she tell anyone then? Victoria wouldn't target Esme, it didn't serve her purpose. Victoria was unstable though. The Volturi were cunning, what if this was an elaborate plan? Carlisle wanted to keep Harry and Esme apart, but why? Where was the threat? Was there even a threat?

The thoughts swirled faster and faster in his head, sloshing over the muddy bedrock of worries and concern that had been building in his mind for the past several weeks, growing higher and walling off his rationality. The angry and constant influx of others' thoughts were icy shards in his already numb river of thoughts.

His eyes squeezed shut in a desperate attempt to block out external stimuli, the dim light too bright, the fresh snow too sharp, the dusty bricks to detailed, everything too too much. Edward was drowning under the overwhelming amount of _stuff_ sloshing around insistently and turning his brain to dust, like the persistent pounding of ocean waves against strong isolated cliffs until the crumbled and turned to sand.

Against his will, a low moan of pain escaped his throat, and his hands came up to clutch at his head. As soon as he made the noise, much of the insistent pounding in his brain eased up, as his siblings worriedly came to the truly concerning and unexpected realization that they'd been overwhelming him with their barrage of thoughts. They couldn't stop thinking, but they could stop deliberately directing their thoughts at him to make it easier for him to block them out.

"Edward?" Alice called out quietly, hesitant to disturb him until he'd regained total control of himself. She, like the rest of her siblings, was exceedingly worried: for her father, her mother and now her brother. Jasper's hand tightened on her shoulder and she felt a fresh surge of worry rush through her veins, now for her mate.

She had a brief but fierce battle with herself to get her worry under control. She knew, logically, that worrying about Jasper would in fact hurt more than help her mate. It was his empathy that was bothering him, the high tension in the room swallowing his own emotions and and spewing them out tenfold. The best thing she could do for him would be to wrestle her own runaway emotions in check and regain a clear head.

It was difficult to do though, with Edward having an apparently telepathically-induced fit, something that had never happened to him in all the time she'd known him. Of course, she also knew that the best way to help Edward was to regain control of her rampant thoughts, just like her emotions.

Alice took a deep, calming breath to help her recollect herself. As she took a moment Rosalie and Emmett had already sprung into action, pulling their eldest brother into the room and out from the cold. Rosalie slipped in front of him, laying gentle fingers on him and applying pressure to Edward's throbbing temples.

Emmett vanish for a moment and reappeared holding a laptop that quickly began producing a low buzzing noise that Alice found quite annoying. She would have snapped at Emmett to turn it off, but she realized it was white noise to help Edward refocus and drown out the thoughts.

The group stood in silence until the tension in Edward's shoulders finally began to fade, and he was able to pry his clenched eyes open, reintroducing the visual stimulus of the world. After some time he took a shallow breath in through his nose, reintroducing smell.

"Thank you," he murmured mutedly, one of his hands reaching up to clasp one of Rosalie's, still resting in its position on his temple. He gave it a grateful squeeze before removing her hand altogether. Emmett gave him a brotherly pat on the back, prompting Edward to give him a tight smile.

"What was that?" Alice demanded, now that it was clear the worst of it had passed. The tired eyes Edward turned on her set her aback, but not enough to deter her concerned curiosity.

"In the past I had less of a handle on my gift. It was easy for me to become overwhelmed by the thoughts of others," he informed her matter of factly. "It would induce incidents like the one you just saw." He punctuated his explanation with a humorless laugh, not quite meeting her eyes.

"I've never seen that happen to you," Alice remarked with narrowed eyes, not willing to let the issue lie. As the two with the most powerful and mentally challenging gifts in the coven, Alice was under the impression that they'd shared everything with each other about their gifts. This secret made an uncomfortable twang of doubt and isolation resonate in her chest.

She scowled for a moment, not liking the self doubt settling on her because of an offhanded comment from Edward. She hated that her emotions were so vulnerable Edward could manipulate them so unintentionally, that others had more control over her than she had of herself. Jasper's hand came up to to cup the back of her neck comfortingly, but he made no attempt to soothe her with his gift. The irony of their mateship didn't escape them: Jasper, a vampire with the power to control others' emotions, and Alice, someone who couldn't stand for her emotions to be at the mercy of others.

"By the time you met me I had the fits pretty well under control. Rosalie and Emmett have helped me through many of them, but I eventually started to get a better handle on my gift, so I haven't had one in several decades," Edward explained abashedly.

"That doesn't explain why you never mentioned them before," Alice pointed out, masking the hurt in her voice, and willing herself to forget that he could pick it straight from her thoughts. She even comforted herself with the hope that, as he was still recovering from his loss of mental control he wouldn't be paying any mind to her thoughts at all.

"Yes well," Edward began in a voice so delicate and halting she knew immediately he had indeed been listening to her insecurities and was trying not to further provoke her. He flinched as her scowl deepened. He rushed to continue, "I found that the more I thought about and worried about the fits the more likely I was to provoke one. So I did my best not to think about them at all." He hesitated before adding, "You never seemed to have quite the same problem with your gift, so I never thought to mention it to you."

Alice, still not satisfied wanted to launch a barrage of questions at her brother. The sudden upset this secret had caused mingling with with her continuing anger at him for the situation with Carlisle made her unwilling to let him in peace.

"Get over it," Rosalie snapped with a poisonous glare. Despite her own anger at Edward, she'd always been quite close to her brother, and his recent relapse into the fits they all thought he'd left behind stirred all the sisterly instincts in her body. Though Edward had been a vampire longer than her, and outranked her in their family hierarchy, she couldn't help but view him as a little brother. As much as she loved Alice, she wasn't about to let the little pixie kick her baby brother when he was already down.

With softening eyes she turned back to Edward. "What triggered this one?" she asked.

"Whether you believe it or not," Edward began drily, "I'm also worried about Carlisle and Esme. Plus, I've been using Bella's mind a lot as a focus to anchor me away from the thoughts of others. Being away from her has weakened my control more than I like to admit. Your thoughts have been a little frantic since we've gotten here, and it's a little more than I'm able to handle." His siblings didn't care to point out that he'd been able to cope just fine before Bella, for which he was grateful.

"Well whose fault is that?" Alice asked snidely.

"I know you're upset that I brought you away from Carlisle without an explanation, but I'm not the cause of this problem. I was just following orders from my sire. I didn't have a choice Alice," he told her firmly, no longer willing to be the scapegoat for his siblings' anger. He was just as concerned about their sire as they were, probably even more so considering he was the closest to Carlisle, having been with him the longest.

With the exception of Alice, his siblings didn't blame him, not really. They understood how difficult it was to disobey a direct order from a sire, and understood Edward's reluctance to even try. Carlisle was a fair coven leader, who did things in their best interest. He rarely ever asked anything of them, so they all took care to obey him when he did. Some vampires had sires that abused the bond between them, manipulating the sense of loyalty all vampires felt towards their sires.

Rosalie and Emmett had both felt the power of the bond with Carlisle. Jasper, though he hadn't been turned by Carlisle, remembered the feeling of it from his time with Maria, and the near devastation of killing her. So while the three of them had spent the last two weeks grousing and grumbling, attacking Edward for his actions as an easy target for their unpleasant feelings, at the end of the day they didn't truly blame him for obeying Carlisle without question

Alice was a different story entirely. She'd never known her sire and never felt the power of the bond. Though it could be explained to her she could never truly understand how Edward could leave Carlisle alone with a stranger like that. Her inability to see Harry made her distrustful of him. On top of that the chronic headaches from her continued attempts to see Harry and Carlisle's future made her grouchy and hostile, leaving her misplaced anger with Edward a dangerous thing indeed. The only thing that stopped her from going back to Forks at all was Jasper's watchful eye.

Edward could feel that his normally mischievous but sweet sister was itching for a confrontation, which between vampires without their coven leader would prove disastrous. He tried to get his family back on track.

"Who was the last person to have seen Esme? I saw her last yesterday, around 8PM."

"I saw her around 2 AM," Emmett chipped in.

"I think I saw her last. This morning around 7 she was sitting by that damn window again. I didn't stay long; she was too… melancholy for me to stay near her for any extended period of time," Jasper admitted quietly.

"She didn't say anything to anyone?" Edward asked, a little desperately considering he already knew the answer.

"Nothing," Rose confirmed. "We all knew she was upset, but she hasn't told anyone why, and she didn't mention to anyone that she was going out tonight."

"Isn't it possible she was just going hunting," Emmet suggested, ever the optimist. "I mean, she hasn't fed at all since we got here. Maybe she thought a nice bite of wolf would cheer her up and she went out for a snack. We're getting all worked up over nothing."

"Except she's disappeared from Alice's visions and the stash of money is gone," his mate reminded him, distinctly unimpressed.

"At least the fact that the money is gone means she left of her own free will, so we can probably rule out Aro or Victoria, not that either of them would have had much of a reason to take her anyway," Jasper reasoned.

"If she was leaving of her own free will and took the money with her maybe she went to town for a little retail therapy," Emmet suggested guilelessly, thinking of his own wife's preferred method of stress relief. Rosalie let him know her opinion of that suggestion with a look.

"I don't think that's it Emmett," Alice commented, finally having calmed down enough to rejoin the conversation. "When Esme is upset she paints, not shops. Plus she wouldn't have needed that much money, and it still doesn't explain my visions."

"What if Esme was going back to Forks?" Jasper pointed out the obvious. When every eye in the room turned and riveted itself to him he continued, "Naturally she wants to see her mate and get to the bottom of this whole mess. She wouldn't have told us because because she knew we would try to stop her. She took the money to either get a plane ticket, or maybe to stop us from going after her and beating her there. Plus, if she's headed to Forks and meets that man Harry, that would explain why she's vanished from Alice's visions. For whatever reason, he and the people he's with are clearly blocked from her sight. All the pieces fit."

"We need to stop her," Edward told them urgently.

"If she's going to see her mate then we don't really have any right to stop her." Alice responded with a frown.

"You don't understand," Edward grimaced, "Carlisle didn't want Esme to get anywhere near that house under any circumstances. He implied it would be dangerous for her. Carlisle will never forgive us, forgive _me,_ if we let her go and she gets hurt."

"We need to track her somehow. With this snow her scent is long gone," Jasper murmured, pacing the room. "Did she take her phone with her?"

Rosalie sprinted to their mother's room to check. "It's missing, so she must have taken it," she confirmed, rejoining her siblings.

"Then we can try to track her by GPS," Jasper noted. "Emmett-"

"On it." The lumbering vampire pulled a laptop off a desk and plopped on the couch with it, already typing as he spoke.

"We need to go to Forks, see if we can't get there before she goes to the house and sees Carlisle," Edward told them, though their chances of catching her with her head start were slim.

"Anything babe?" Rosalie asked Emmett who'd stopped furiously typing.

"Nothing," Emmett sighed. "Her phone is either off or out of range."

"That settles it then. We need to go and tell Carlisle that his mate is missing," Jasper decided. Sensing the group's reluctance, he continued, "Esme is his mate. However angry he may be at us for disobeying a command he'll be even angrier at us for not trying to stop her. Plus if she's not going to Forks then he needs to know that his mate is missing. She's his _mate."_

It was enough to convince them. Now it only remained to decide who would go and who would stay.

They agreed a small group would be best, to minimize the number of people disobeying Carlisle. Edward wanted to go alone, since Carlisle had made the whole thing his responsibility. Jasper argued that if it was a dangerous situation as Carlisle had implied, then Edward would need both he and Emmett just in case things escalated. Plus he and Emmett had already resolved to go to Forks within the next few days anyway. Of course Alice wanted to go, but without her sight there wasn't much she would be able to do for the situation. Rosalie of course didn't want Emmett to go, both out of worry for her mate and well-placed concern that he would escalate an in-control situation into a confrontation due to his ever-present itch for a fight.

Ultimately it was decided they would all go to Forks. Only Edward and Jasper would go into the home to inform Carlisle of the situation. The others would stay within a few miles: out of earshot but in easy running distance.

The siblings made one final, desperate phone call to Carlisle. When the called failed as expected, they took off running into the night.

* * *

The brothers stood at the forest line, shrouded by the trees, but with an unobscured view of the house. There were no lights on, but as it was early morning still this wasn't entirely surprising, nor did it give them any insight as to who might be in the house.

The smell of the human lingered, exotic and tangy, but notable unappetizing, a summer fruit that had been left out just a little too long in the sun and was just beginning to rot. They couldn't make out the sound of a heartbeat, but were wary to draw any conclusions from that. They both remembered how on their first encounter with Harry neither of them had been able to hear his heartbeat until they were directly in front of him.

They approached the house quietly, breathing deeply, scenting the air for any trace of Esme's floral aroma. They exchanged grim looks when they didn't catch anything, finally able to acknowledge that Esme hadn't come to Forks as they'd expected. In an ideal world they would be able to turn around now and Carlisle would be none the wiser. Neither of them would get reamed out for disobeying him and they wouldn't be putting themselves in a potentially dangerous situation.

The matter remained though. Carlisle's mate was still very much missing, and their concern over Carlisle's uncharacteristic behavior was still very real.

Edward sought out Carlisle's thoughts and found them muted. Muted in the way of a vampire in a meditative rest. Though their kind couldn't sleep, some vampires liked to pretend by closing their eyes and letting their minds go blank. Carlisle had never been one of those vampires though.

"He's in there," he told Jasper, comforted by the thought that at least one thing was going right.

The pair moved slowly towards the front door, slipping through the unlocked entryway. This gave them both pause for a moment, but they ultimately disregarded it. For a house full of vampires in the middle of nowhere, a locked door meant virtually nothing.

They took a moment to decide how to proceed. With a quick progression of thoughts from Jasper and some sharp gestures from Edward, they agreed to move quietly up the stairs to Carlisle's bedroom where Edward could hear his thoughts. They wouldn't try to mask their presence, but neither would they be indiscrete with their approach. Carlisle's meditative rest would have him in a state of obliviousness, making it easy for them to sneak up on him without making it obvious that was their intent.

They slinked up the stairs and, exchanging one final look outside Carlisle's room, pushed open the door. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.

Edward flinched back from the sight before him, feeling his throat constricting and the ghost sensation of his stomach churning. His anxiety compounded tenfold as Jasper lost control of his empathy and started projecting his own emotions onto the rest of the room.

It was like the perfect bubble of contentment that their life had always been had just been burst, and Edward and Jasper were the ones at fault. In this very moment, Edward knew that his whole life was going to change, right as he just found what he thought was happiness. The sense of loss rang strikingly in his chest, but he pushed it aside, determined to mourn later, for now he had to focus on the scene before him.

There, in the center of the room, in the bed that Carlisle normally shared with Esme, Carlisle, his sire, mentor and father lay tangled with Harry. His arms wrapped around the pale slim body and a mop of inky black hair pillowed Harry's gaunt cheek on his chest. Both men were topless. Though the covers shielded their bodies from the waist down from view, Edward spied a pile of clothes on the floor that included Carlisle's trousers and boxer-briefs, informing the brothers that the resting pair were likely completely naked. Harry was clearly asleep, his breathing shallow and even, his heartbeat slow and quiet. he didn't even stir as they entered the room.

Carlisle's eyes snapped open, wide and furious, the moment he heard the door swinging open. His angry gaze locked with Edward's horrified stare. Edward fell into his sire's mind, watching his racing thoughts as he was consumed with the need to protect Harry, to look after him, to shield his mate…

 _Mate._

The word struck Edward like a mallet crashing harshly on a gong, knocking the wind out of him and sending vibrations throughout this body, practically knocking him over with the force of it.

 _Mate._

Carlisle moved quickly, hands shifting Harry's head onto a pillow and pulling the coverlet further up the bed to shield his mate's body from the unwelcome eyes. He handled the small whimper of loss Harry made with a only a small tightening of the skin on his forehead.

 _Mate,_ if only he'd known...

Edward raised his hands placatingly and averted his gaze submissively, not wanting to further provoke his sire's wrath as he stepped from the bed, slipped into his underwear and stalked toward them menacingly. Jasper was stiff and frozen next to him, not understanding the situation, not able to process the situation, but knowing from Edward and Carlisle's emotions that he had every reason to be afraid. Jasper still hadn't figured out that Harry was their father's mate, that Esme…

 _Why hadn't he told them?_

Carlisle grabbed both of them by their shirts, shoving them harshly back in the hall, both of them going willingly. The door swung shut behind them.

Nobody breathed.

The brothers watched Carlisle's eyes dart back and forth between them, furiously, waiting to see what he would do next.

Finally, ever so slowly, he unclenched his hand from the destroyed material of their shirts and took a step back, his shoulders still tense.

"What are you doing here?" he asked stiffly. Neither of them knew how to respond, feeling more filled up with questions than reasonable answers. "Well?" he prompted, eyes flashing.

Edward noted for the first time that his eyes were black with rage. "You disobey my orders, come into this house where you have no business being, disrupt my privacy and disturb Harry's sleep," for even through the door they could hear the human stirring restlessly, "And you have nothing to say for yourselves?"

Carlisle's muscles bunched angrily, growing more and more tense the longer he spoke, his voice rasping harshly until it was more of a growl.

Carlisle's mind rushed and surged with anger, _Threats,_ his instincts told him, flooding his rational thoughts out with the need to _protectdefendprotect._ Edward stared dumbly at him in shock, not able to process any of it, not able to to predict what Carlisle would do next. Which is why he received next to no warning when, as Jasper opened his mouth to let the words "Esme is-" out Carlisle lunged at his adoptive child, knocking him to the ground and attacking with a blinding need to do something ( _anything)_ to get them away from his vulnerable mate..

Edward moved immediately to help his brother, but Carlisle was attacking with a ruthlessness and precision Edward hadn't even known he was capable of. Where normally the two best fighters in the coven could have easily subdued their sire between them, now Edward feared they wouldn't all escape the confrontation in tact.

Suddenly the door behind them burst open. While they'd been distracted Harry had been woken by the commotion. He exploded from the room, panting with fright and paused, taking in the scene.

Carlisle realized immediately that his mate was too close to the fray and and perilously near the two threats in the hall. He leapt back, crouching defensively in front of the man, low snarls tumbling out of his throat. He watched the others predatorily, ready to reenter the fight at any moment.

Without warning, Harry plastered himself to Carlisle's back, his hands draping securely around Carlisle's neck and his mouth pressing comfortingly to Carlisle's neck.

"Shh, Carlisle. Look, 'm safe Love. They don't want to hurt me. They're your children Carlisle, your babies. Everything is alright. Nobody will take me from you again, everything is going to be alright," he murmured soothingly, his hand rubbing gently at Carlisle's chest. He continued whispering softly in his lover's ear until finally Carlisle eased out of his defensive posture, sweeping Harry off of his back and into his arms. He pressed his face into Harry's neck, inhaling deeply the sweet drug that never failed to calm him down.

Edward and Jasper continued to watch warily until Carlisle turned clear headed eyes on him. The remorse and guilty thoughts radiated from him, reassuring them that he was finally in his right mind. It also went a long way in reassuring them that the man before them was truly their father and not some clone.

"We need to talk," Carlisle told them solemnly.

* * *

They settled themselves downstairs in the living room. The sun had fully risen, filling the space with natural light.

Edward and Jasper seated themselves heavily on the sofa. Carlisle sunk into the love seat. Harry attempted to squeeze next to him, but Carlisle quickly tugged Harry into his lap where the human perched stiffly, clearly not comfortable under the piercing, accusatory gaze the two brothers were sending his way. Jasper pulled out his phone with the intention of sending a quick text to Alice, summoning her and the rest of the siblings.

"So," Carlisle began with a tired sigh.

"Not yet," Jasper stopped him. "Lets wait for the others, so we can all hear at once."

"No," Carlisle snapped. Jasper glanced up at him, startled. "Harry's not ready yet to meet everyone."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked him a bit incredulously.

"Harry," Carlisle sighed exasperatedly, "You're still exhausted. You need your rest." He smoothed a hand over Harry's back as he bristled at the words.

"I only slept twelve hours yesterday. That's practically normal for a teenager," he muttered petulantly.

"For a teenager yes, but not for you. You're going to need plenty more sleep in the next few weeks. Once everyone gets back in this house there'll never be a moment's peace."

"Carlisle-"

"No. They can come back at the start of next week, and that's the earliest," the blond vampire said firmly, putting his proverbial foot down. "Now I believe you two have a lot of explaining to do," he continued, turning the conversation back to his two sons.

"We were worried about you," Edward confessed after a moment of tense silence. "It's been three weeks and you haven't so much as called. Plus you implied that things might be dangerous here. We thought- we didn't know what to think."

"I expected you to respect me enough to obey my orders. I'm disappointed you couldn't bring yourself to trust that I had the coven's best interests in mind."

All at once Edward was furious. This whole time they'd been worried sick and Carlisle had been relaxing to heart's content. "How can you have the coven's best interests in mind!? You don't even know what state you have left everyone in. Esme was wasting away, and you didn't even care. Do you even remember her? Esme, your mate? While you were here, sleeping around with some-"

"If you value your life you won't finish that sentence," Carlisle more growled than said. Edward reared back and watched cautiously as Harry rubbed Carlisle's neck until he seemed to regain control.

"I'm sorry to hear about Esme," Carlisle said firmly after a moment, "She's a member of my family and someone I care about a great deal. However, she is not, never has been, and never will be my mate. Harry and I met many years ago when I was just a newborn myself. I knew he was my mate immediately.

"As I'm sure you can tell our reunion has me feeling more on edge than I can reasonably handle. I sent you away for your own safety, until I had better control over my protective instincts, to prevent incidents like the one you experienced earlier from happening. The only threat in this house is the threat I myself pose to you."

Even though Carlisle had continued talking, his sons had stopped truly listening after he said Esme wasn't his mate.

"How can Esme not be your mate? You've been together for years. You love each other," Jasper pointed out, choosing to ignore the agony he suddenly felt coming from Harry at his words.

Carlisle glared at Jasper for upsetting Harry, but answered his question anyway. "Jasper, you of all people should have realized that my partnership with Esme was entirely platonic. We never held an inkling of romantic love towards one another, and certainly not any sexual attraction. All of you kids know that we never consummated our mateship. I've also never referred to Esme as my mate out loud or in my head," he added with a pointed look at Edward.

All of the points Carlisle ticked off were certainly true. He had never claimed Esme as a mate, but he'd also never corrected them when they'd assumed the two were mated. But all the same…

"If Esme doesn't love you why is she so upset?"

"I'm not a mind reader," their sire joked humorlessly, "but I'm sure she's feeling a little uncertain of her place in the family, not that I'd ever ask her to leave it. She might also be feeling the absence of her own mate much more strongly right now."

"There's something else Carlisle," Jasper hinted, no longer sure he should he even mention Esme's vanishing act to his father at all. Carlisle's eyes were on him now though, so he powered on. "Last night Esme went missing."

"Missing?" Carlisle asked, curious but not yet concerned. "How do you mean?"

"Most of us were out hunting and when we came back she wasn't there. She hasn't been in touch since and we haven't been able to track her. We thought she might have been on her way here, except she clearly wasn't."

"Esme is a grown woman and a hundred-year old vampire at that. If she wants some time to herself she's entitled to take it," Carlisle pointed out.

"How can you be so nonchalant about this?" Edward barked. "With all the problems we've had with the Volturi and Victoria lately, and you're going to pretend Esme's disappearance is no big deal!?" He was arguing more for the sake of confrontation than any real belief in the words he was spewing.

Carlisle opened his mouth to argue but Harry intervened before anything could escalate. He laid a placating hand on his mate's chest, stopping the vampire in his tracks.

"I can find out where she is if you like," Harry offered with a shy smile. Edward glared at him and his kind, caring face, about to tell him that his help was unwanted when Carlisle beat him to it.

"If you think you're going out to look for a woman who's perfectly capable of looking after herself in your condition you have another thing coming."

Harry rolled his eyes at Carlisle's melodrama. "In my condition," he scoffed, "You act like I'm dying." It must have had a more significant meaning between the two of them since Harry chuckled while Carlisle shot him a look that was distinctly unimpressed.

"You're still so tired-"

"I know exactly how tired I am or am not," Harry cut him off loudly, "and I promised you complete honesty on the matter. In fact I wouldn't mind a lie-down right now." here he paused to glare at Carlisle when it seemed like he was immediately going to be ushered to bed. "But I assure you I can find Esme with a minimal expenditure of energy and without even leaving the house."

Carlisle huffed in defeat and allowed Harry to stand and hobble over to the sliding glass door. He pushed it open and stood for a moment, staring intently into the forest. Finally, just when Edward was about to start questioning his sanity, he stuck out an arm into the fresh air. A massive crow swooped down from the threes to settle heavily on his arm. The boys gaped at the sight of it.

"That bird…" Jasper trailed off. Carlisle shushed him with a fond smile. Edward caught a glimpse of a memory of a similar bird swooping and landing on Jasper's head, though the significance of it escaped him.

They all returned their attention to Harry, who was presently stroking the creature's glossy black feathers. He gave it a couple of final pats on the back before it took off again.

Carlisle welcomed Harry back into the circle of his arms, smiling when Harry let out a contented sigh. "We'll know momentarily," the human informed them, his eyes already slipping shut.

Edward wanted to call bullshit on the whole thing. Even if the green-eyed menace was some sort of raven-whisperer there was no way he'd be able to find out Esme's location. Jasper elbowed him when he opened his mouth to speak, effectively silencing him. In all honesty Jasper feared Carlisle's wrath if they woke Harry from his light doze. Instead, Edward settled for glaring and hoped his vehement gaze gave the sleeping man nightmares. Jasper shifted uncomfortably at his malicious emotions, but otherwise said nothing.

They sat for nearly ten minutes until the crow reappeared outside the door. It pecked impatiently at the glass, the sharp sound rousing harry from his nap. His eyelashes fluttered open and he took a moment to stretch, arching his back. He was about to rise to let the bird in when Carlisle's steel arms caged him into place. The blond vampire nodded his head at his sons, commanding one of them to do it. When Edward only glared petulantly, Jasper got up with an eyeroll and pushed open the door.

The bird flew into the room with a grating caw and perched on the armrest of the loveseat where it began grooming Harry's hair.

"Stop that," he groused, but remained obediently still to Carlisle's great amusement. After a moment the bird cawed again and Harry saw fit to inform them of its tidings. "Esme is on a flight to Paris." Sensing their disbelief he quickly continued and shared her flight number with them so they could check themselves.

"How could you possibly know that?" Jasper asked incredulously.

"I have a certain affinity with crows," Harry replied in a mischievous tone, clearly not sharing the whole story.

Jasper wanted to ask more but Carlisle cut into the conversation. "That's enough for today. Harry needs rest. I'll see you two no sooner than Monday," he informed them, and ushered them out of the house.

The two brothers ran slowly back to the rest of their coven, not at all eager to share the information they'd learned, and not at all capable of answering the questions that were sure to come up.

* * *

Enjoy the extra-long chapter!

Also, I want everyone to know how much I appreciate their reviews! You're all very kind with your compliments, and I appreciate every bit of constructive criticism I can get.

I am a student at university so I don't have as much time as I would like to respond to all my reviews, but please know that I read and cherish every single one!


	5. Chapter 5

Harry's fingers danced delicately up and down little Teddy's sides, delighting in the wide grin and gasping giggles that escaped the baby's mouth. As Teddy giggled his hair turned a bubble gum pink, a sure sign he was enjoying himself.

A shriek of delight pierced the air as Harry leaned down to blow a raspberry on the baby's belly. He was giggling uncontrollably now, hiccups of laughter bubbling out of him continuously, his face scrunched up tight and stomach taught. His legs lashed out uncontrollably, as he reacted to the stimulation.

Harry vaguely wondered if he should be concerned by the shade of pink Teddy was turning after having laughed so long, but he brushed the thought off. Teddy looked too dang cute like this, and he was unwilling to stop.

The floo chimed in the background, but Harry ignored it for the time being, not ready to be distracted. With one hand still tickling the baby's side gently, the other moved to direct the floating camera beside him. He snapped a few pictures of the bubbly baby. He smirked mischievously at the thought of showing these photos to Teddy's first girlfriend. The pink hair would only be the icing on the cake. Future Teddy would be so mortified. Though really, he should just be grateful that Harry had yet to take the camera with him to bathtime. Harry wasn't sure if he was ready to take that final step into the role of mortifying parent.

Harry's merciless fingers finally relented when it seemed like Teddy had really had enough (his giggles were more gasps than laughter). With one final raspberry to his silky belly he pulled away to answer the floo, not at all surprised to see Nevill standing in the flames.

"Come on through," Harry waved him in, easing up the ward. "Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"How could I resist a chance to see Daddy Harry in his natural habitat," Neville teased. Harry flushed at the quip, but couldn't help the pleased smile at the tile.

"Are you sure you don't mind watching him for the day?"

"Go on Harry," Neville assured him. "Hogwart's wards aren't going to fix themselves and McGonagall will skin me if I'm the reason you're late. Plus I'm sure you could use a break from this little monster," Neville remarked, poking a finger into Teddy's soft side. "Look, I wouldn't even mind if you took your time coming back. Hit up a pub or something, meet up with Ron and Hermione."

Harry smiled warmly in thanks. Giving them both kisses on the cheek, he stepped into the green flames, shouting, "Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office!"

After a warm greeting from Minerva they set to work. Their goal for the day was to repair the significant damage done to the wards in the past several years. They would have already been due for a strengthening soon, but then the battle of Hogwarts had all but devastated them.

Ward casting as complex as this required several strong wizards to act as magical anchors, one of which would be Harry. Minerva, as the current headmistress and a powerful witch in her own right, would be casting the spell herself. They'd all spent weeks studying the wards, preparing everything for the ritual and memorizing their roles. Minerva had called in a prestigious wardmaster from abroad to help with the preparations, and he'd been the one guiding them through their roles in the past few weeks. Master Chilikov would be with them today to help them with the final preparations.

Even with the extensive preparation, Harry was still dead nervous. He'd never performed magic this complex before, usually relying on raw power and quick reflexes to get him through any situation. The only reason he'd even considered participating was McGonagall's insistence that they needed his raw power, and the promise that all the truly intricate work would be out of his hands. (Of course her deathly glare when he'd tried to back out had gone a long way to convincing him.)

The whole group was tense when they met, wary of the ancient and powerful magic they were about to interfere with. They could only hope that the semi-sentient nature of the Hogwarts magic would make the wards easier to repair, not more difficult.

Harry himself was to be stationed on the north point in the forest. He tried not to show his trepidations as the wardmaster, an old Bulgarian man, led him into the forest, checking some twirling angular device every few meters until at last they arrived at what the man decided was the ideal point for the anchor.

To Harry's horror, they had stopped in the very clearing where he'd been killed. The dark magic still hung heavy in the air, thick oil sliding against his magic, sensual and tempting but utterly revolting. It glanced The tree where Hagrid had been chained still bore the deep grooves from when he'd tried to break free and pulled the magic chains taut against the tree. Harry spied a thestral through the foliage. It glanced up as they broke into the clearing, a living rat squirming in the grasp of its teeth. It paused as it watched them, before tensing its jaw, the rat stilling in a sudden spray of blood, with a grotesque crunch. The thestral trotted off into the darkness of the forest. Harry shuddered. The place reeked of death.

"This is the spot," the master said gruffly, with casualness that assured Harry he hadn't seen the thestral, hadn't seen death.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, unable to withhold his cringe.

"Of course I'm sure," the man snapped. "We're right on top of a ley line, not to mention that this is a natural nexus for the magic of the area."

"The dark magic-"

"Will, with any luck, be cleansed with the ritual," the man finished pointedly, before vanishing abruptly back into the trees. And so, Harry was left uneasily in the middle of the clearing where he'd once died, wishing to be anywhere but there.

He briefly contemplated backing out, or at least asking to change spots with someone else, but the ritual needed to be performed. They'd spent weeks planning this, and couldn't afford to waste anymore time. The wards needed time to settle before the schoolchildren came back in September or the consequences could be devastating. He just needed to tough it out.

He stood anxiously for close to half an hour, while Chilikov got the rest of the anchors settled and McGonagall properly started the ritual. He was trying desperately to think of anything but the memories of the clearing attempting to force their way to the forefront of his mind. He forcibly turned away from them, grasping desperately to thoughts of sweet little Teddy, probably having his bottle right now. His hair normally turned a seafoam green when he suckled.

He thought of Remus, who'd accompanied him that fatal night, only just passed on himself, but already willing to help ease Harry's transition to-

He thought of Neville looking after him, Neville who'd been looking after them both lately, more of a constant in his life than anyone else these past weeks.

Neville had stood so defiantly against Voldemort in those last few minutes, so proud and strong. Harry remembered spying him through the slits of his eyes as he played dead in Hagrid's arms. He thought of Neville covered in blood and holding the sword, glinting with a strange light of battle reflected in his eyes as he attacked.

 _No,_ he told himself firmly. Instead, he thought of Ginny, who had just signed with the Holyhead Harpies.

Ginny had cried for him, when she'd thought-

He contemplated his recently developed theory that Ginny was one of the main reasons Nev had been so present in his life lately. His ex-girlfriend had hinted that the two men would make a good couple; he wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that she'd been conspiring to match off her two best friends. She'd worn a devious smirk when he confided in her about how much he'd appreciated Neville's presence and loved that he was so good with Teddy. He might as well check off his suspicions as fact: that smirk basically confirmed it.

The thought of a relationship with Neville did have a certain warming effect in his belly, so regardless of how intimidating he found the world of dating, he'd resolved to say yes if Neville ever asked him out. He had a feeling it was going to happen sooner or later, and his heart always raced with nerves and anticipation at the thought, which, with his limited experience, he'd decided was a good sign.

His thoughts also drifted to Ron and Hermione, who were with Hermione's parents as they underwent extensive mind healing. As skilled as she was, _Obliviate_ was a tricky spell, and unpredictable when used on muggles. They were staying in France for the foreseeable future, leaving Harry floundering a little at the sudden separation, but in all honesty the two deserved some time to themselves and they really were only a floo call away.

After nearly half an hour of letting his thoughts meander, a cat patronus finally came bounding up to him. "We're starting," McGonagall's curt tone informed him. He straightened from his slouch immediately, his holly wand slipping into his hand.

The magic came slowly, like waves slipping up a sandy shore as the tide started to rise. It lapped cautiously and his arms and his core before the ritual began to proceed in earnest. The gentle waves were suddenly wracked by a storm, each fresh surge of magic like a tidal wave of raw power and energy crashing over him, attempting to drown him.

Belatedly, he realized he was supposed to be playing a more active role, and hastily set about building a magical dam. In the preparations leading up to today, the wardmaster had taught them several techniques to do this while using as little magic as possible, so they wouldn't risk magical exhaustion. Of course, in this moment, all of the training flew from Harry's mind and he was left running on instinct. He directed his own raw magic, forging it into a wall with sheer willpower, even calling on the excess of magic floating in the clearing, directing it all with lazy waves of his wand and and the sharp strength of his mind. The dam grew bigger and stronger until he felt it could reasonably withstand the tidal waves of magic that would become the wards.

The current of magic flowing into the clearing grew stronger and faster until his wall began to tremble and he grit his teeth under the pressure of maintaining it. Just as Harry was beginning to think he would break under the pressure of it a final, great tsunami wave of magic came rushing towards him, so heavy it forced Harry to his knees. He dug his hands deep into the moist earth under his nails, feeling the stones and twigs digging into his palms, grounding him. The wave crashed violently against the wall, sloshing dangerously at the top of it, but Harry's creation held until the spell lifted both the tide of magic and the damn straight up, where it blossomed into an array of colors and shot all across the sky, forming the ward.

Harry lay panting on the ground for a moment, shaking from the exertion, but feeling strangely pleased with himself. If this was the sense of satisfaction all wardmasters felt than he was definitely willing to consider giving up on being a stay-at-home Dad. Though of course wardcating required arithmancy and runes, the only two subjects taught at Hogwarts that Harry knew next to nothing about.

Deciding he'd dawdled enough, Harry pushed himself to his feet, before quickly realizing it was a bad idea. He swayed dangerously, but managed to teeter over to the nearest tree. He belatedly realized he was still holding fistfuls of dirt in his palms. He was just about to shake his hands clean when he heard footsteps crashing through the underbrush not far away. Panicking slightly, he hastily shoved his hands in his pockets, attempting to look nonchalant as the group came rushing into the clearing.

"Harry," McGonagall called out, relieved to see him upright. Behind her stood Flitwick, Sprout, and of course, the wardmaster.

"Professor," he intoned, offering her what he hoped was a winning smile.

"What on earth my boy! You finished your portion of the ward ages after everyone else, and when they finally went up…" she appeared a little dazed, "we could actually see it."

"How much of the ritual magic did you actually catch my dear boy?" Flitwick exclaimed, equally as astounded.

"How… much?" Harry asked, a little dazed himself, "Do you mean we weren't supposed to catch all of it."

"Of course that's the ideal, but to catch and contain that much raw energy with only the magic in your core would be next to impossible. Even with the techniques Master Chilikov gave us, to even attempt it would be suicidal. Which is why the goal is always to capture only as much of it as you're able to do safely," Flitwick lectured him with a frown.

"Oh," Harry said, cringing away from the professor's expectant gazes. "I didn't realize it would be okay to let any of the ritual magic get away," Harry explained timidly, flinching minutely when McGonagall's jaw dropped.

"Do you mean to tell me that you caught all of the ritual magic?" Harry wished McGonagall's dry tone didn't frighten him quite as much as it actually did.

"At least I think I did," Harry commented blithely. He rushed to continue when it seemed like his former professor was working up to a tirade on his safety and wellbeing. "It wasn't even that bad. I used a lot of the ambient magic and residual magic in the clearing, so I didn't even exhaust my core," he assured her. He almost regretted the admittance when the wardmaster's head snapped up. He was eternally grateful that Chilikov didn't mention that the clearing had been saturated with death magic.

"As long as you're safe," the woman relented with a reluctant sigh.

"Just peachy," Harry cheeked. He summoned his wand from the forest floor with an outstretched hand. _Oh shit,_ he thought to himself as he felt the strain of the light spell. The sight of his wand smacking into his palm was the last thing he saw before he passed out.

* * *

When he awoke in the Hogwart's infirmary it was to Neville's worried face peering over him.

"Nev?" He asked groggily, "Where's Teddy?"

"Teddy's fine," Neville informed him exasperatedly. "You, on the other hand nearly killed yourself with magical exhaustion."

"What day is it?" He'd learned from his extensive experience that this was always a prudent question to ask when waking up in the hospital wing.

"It's still Friday," Neville informed him with a good-natured eyeroll, in a much better mood now that Harry was awake. "Madam Pomfrey cleared you to leave as soon as you woke up. Of course, she didn't expect you to so much as twitch until tomorrow at the earliest."

"Excellent," Harry grinned broadly. "Let's get out of here before anyone realizes I'm up. I'm assuming Teddy is at the Burrow?"

"Yes, and that's where he's staying until at least Sunday. I'm afraid Molly's got her hands on him and she's not letting him go until she's had a chance to coddle him properly. She's not at all pleased that you've been hoarding him away in Grimmauld. He's the first of her grandchildren you know."

"Sunday!?" Harry exclaimed. "What am I supposed to do until then?"

"Harry," Neville sighed in fond exasperation. "You're an 18 year old man, it shouldn't be so hard for you to figure out what to do with your Friday and Saturday when you don't have a baby on your hands." He ignored Harry's petulant expression and continued, "you could rest and recover for one, but since that's obviously out, you could always have a night out."

"A night out?" Harry prompted, intrigued against his will.

"Yes, a night out. A nice dinner, a show, a nice walk through town, maybe even a few drinks back at your place." Neville's eyes were positively shining as he reached to brush away a stray lock of hair on Harry's temple.

"But who could I possibly have my night out with?" Harry asked coyly.

"I could possibly be persuaded to help with that," Neville said quietly, shyly meeting harry's coquettish green gaze.

"Yeah?" Harry asked breathlessly, stepping off the bed so he was chest to chest with his fellow Gryffindor.

"Yeah." Neville leaned down to capture Harry's lips in a chaste kiss.

It wasn't until much later, when Harry was secure in his home and Neville had departed for the night, that Harry remembered the fistfuls of dirt he'd irrationally shoved into his jean pockets. Acknowledging that vanishing spells weren't his strong suit, Harry decided to dump the dirt in the bin and avoid the high risk of sending his favorite denims into nonbeing.

He stood over the muggle metal bin in the kitchen and turned out the pockets, watching the shower of dirt and pebbles with mild disdain. He would have left it at that had it not been for the strange clink of something that was decidedly not a twig or a pebble hit the bottom of the bin. It sounded almost… metallic.

Curiosity piqued, he reached in and dug around until his fingers met with something cold and smooth. He lifted it out, dropping it onto his palm to examine it. He stared and stared and stared, but his eyes weren't deceiving him. The resurrection stone was staring back.

* * *

I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, but figured it would be best to just get on with it. I know y'all have been eager for some back story, so here's a little taste to get you going. The rest of the backstory will be unveiled slowly but surely.

If anyone notices any errors or has any constructive criticism to share please do so!

Also, do not fear, this IS a Harry/Carlisle story, but Harry did have a life before Carlisle and acknowledging it will be important for the development of the story.


	6. Chapter 6

Some explanation of the last chapter

1\. Yes, it was a part of this story.

2\. No, Harry did not cheat on Carlisle. The chapter with Neville took place before Harry met Carlisle.

3\. There will be a couple more interludes in which Harry's backstory will be explored and they will include Neville, but they are not the point of the story so if you don't like Neville/Harry you shouldn't worry too much.

I realize I should have given a little more prelude for that chapter, and I will try to do so for any other chapters that are in a confusing context.

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their opinions of the chapter, including those of you who didn't like it. The only way I know to improve is if you let me know what's wrong.

* * *

Edward took a deep, unnecessary breath. He breathed in the perpetual scent of damp earth, the moist air, the musk of the small woodland creatures that lingered in Forks at all familiar scents should have soothed him, reassuring him that the whole world hadn't gone awry, but they didn't smooth the ragged edges of his emotions the way he'd hoped they would. He scented the sharp metallic taste of electricity in the air, indicating there was an approaching storm.

"We'll meet you in Port Angeles," Jasper was murmuring into the small silver phone in the palm of his hand.

"We'll explain there. Carlisle and Esme are both fine, but we can't stay here," Jasper continued firmly as vehement protests erupted from the phone. Edward tuned them out as Jasper muttered a few more assurances to them and hung up.

"They're not going to like this."

"Of course not," Edward muttered, "I don't like it." He pointedly didn't acknowledge the fresh surge of betrayal and resentment that washed through his chest, and he definitely didn't acknowledge the concern Jasper felt because of it.

"Edward," Jasper murmured, _Carlisle didn't do this to hurt us. There's more going on here than either of us understand._

Edward jerked away, not wanting to listen to any more of Jasper's platitudes. His brother sighed as he realized his words hadn't had the desired effect.

"Do you want to check in with Bella before we meet the others?"

Edward shrunk away from the suggestion, the thought of seeing Bella when his emotions were in the current disarray they were just seemed stressful.

"No, I'll call her later. Let's just go."

Jasper wanted to tell him that the comfort of seeing his mate would likely make him feel better with the whole mess, but Edward sped away before he could voice the thought. Jasper watched the silent forest where Edward had disappeared for a long moment, sure that Edward had gotten the message anyway from his mind. He was also sure Edward had not understood.

* * *

They met Emmett and Rosalie in a grubby hotel that had, for a brief period of time been slated for demolition, but some hands had been greased under a few tables, and the health hazard of a building had remained standing. Edward sneered in disgust. This place was barely suitable for human habitation, but for their enhanced senses it was intolerable.

The carpets were musty and the sheets stained. The scent of mold permeated the air and the scuttling of insects echoed from the walls.

"Why are we here?"

"The nicer hotel in town wouldn't rent us a room, since we're minors and everything," Emmett told him.

"Emmett, you were 20 when you were turned," Edward pointed out incredulously. Just because they played teenagers in high school, didn't mean most of them were actually teenagers.

"That's not what my ID says," Emmett groused. They had a variety of false IDs back at the house but they didn't have the forethought to bring them.

"Besides, we sent Alice in to get the room by herself, and she really couldn't pass as an adult." Jasper and Edward laughed.

"Are you serious?" Jasper chortled. "You two couldn't turn on the vampire charm?"

"She was a shrew who was jealous of my beauty," Rosalie snarled, not enjoying being poked fun at.

"And what about you big boy? You lost your touch?" Edward smirked.

"Ha ha, very funny. I don't think I was her type," Emmett acquiesced with a good natured smile at the easy ribbing.

Alice appeared from an adjacent room. It was clear she'd been sulking in there after being accused of being a child.

"Hello there little one," Edward teased, "Done with your nap?"

Alice swiped an irritated hand at him, before burrowing into Jasper's side.

"Aww, I think the wittle one is still a wittle gwouchy. Maybe she needs a bottle," he continued to mock her, delighting in the flow of foul insults in she flung at him from inside her mind.

"That's enough," Rosalie finally grew tired of the childishness of her siblings. "Did you find Esme at the house?"

The humor immediately bled out of the room, dripping off the coven and seeping out of the cracks in the walls, leaving only a tense cold behind. Jasper and Edward exchanged glances, putting the rest of the room on edge.

"Emmett, you need to check a flight registry for us."

Emmett's brow furrowed in confusion but he obediently retrieved a laptop and went to work, checking the passenger list for the flight number they gave him. The boys could tell both girls were bristling with irritation but a meaningful look from Jasper convinced them to hold their tongues.

"Here, the passenger list," Emmett turned the screen to face him. Jasper scanned the list quickly.

"Here," he murmured, his fingers brushing the screen, "he was right," The group watched the tightening of Edward's shoulders and the grim line of Edward's mouth.

"You two have three seconds to explain before I eviscerate you," Rosalie sneered.

"Esme is on a flight to France… or, I suppose she's landed by now," Jasper informed them plainly.

"Esme's name isn't on this passenger list," Emmett pointed out.

"No, but Esmeralda Coleman is one of the aliases on the many passports I've had made for her."

The relief they'd expected at finding out Esme's whereabouts didn't come.

"Why would she leave for France without telling us?" Rosalie murmured.

"And if that's where she is, why can't my visions see her?" Alice demanded.

"Alice, focus on whether you can see Esme five minutes from now in France," Edward ordered her. She glared at his callousness but tried it anyway. "I think she already landed. I can see her getting into a cab, but then she…" she huffed "it goes fuzzy."

Edward smirked in satisfaction as his theory was confirmed. "I don't think Esme had a plan when she left us in Alaska. The reason you couldn't see her future is because she's making all of her decisions spur of the moment. My guess is she wasn't planning on going to Paris until she'd already boarded the plane. Even now you can't see what will happen because she hasn't decided where she's going."

"It still doesn't explain what motivated this," Rosalie groused.

"I think we all know what motivated this," Emmett pointed out guilelessly. "She hasn't seen Carlisle in weeks, Mama Esme is lonely."

"She does love Paris," Alice conceded, "Maybe she just wanted to take her mind off of Carlisle's distance."

"I can't imagine what state I would be in if I couldn't see Rose for three weeks," Emmett said gently, with an uncharacteristically fond smile at his mate.

"So what is Carlisle going to do about it? Is he going to get her?"

"No," Jasper started hesitantly, "Carlisle has decided that Esme deserves to be allowed some privacy if that's what she wants."

The others gaped at him.

"Well, yeah," Emmett exclaimed, "but privacy doesn't include mates. Privacy means being alone except for your mate. The point of mates is never being alone."

"Jasper," Alice said hoarsely. "How did you know Esme was on the plane? Did she already tell Carlisle?"

"No, look, this is more complicated than any of us anticipated. You need to let us explain." The scuttling of the bugs in the walls echoed in the silence. Jasper looked to Edward but he was glaring at the floor, a sharp tight feeling rolling off of him.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna get it out and explain after," Jasper warned them. "Esme and Carlisle are not mates."

The words pierced the silence, a stone dropping quietly into a still pond, sinking to the murky bottom of their consciousnesses and dragging with it a corpse. It was the death of their understanding of their lives.

"What!?" Alice croaked.

"Carlisle and Esme have never been mates. We all knew they didn't share a traditional matebond, never consummating it. Their relationship has always been platonic.

"No," Rosalie defended fiercely, "Just because it's never been sexual doesn't mean it's been platonic. They were a romantic couple."

"No, they weren't. We assumed they were mates because they seemed so well suited to each other, and they never bothered to correct us. We should have known though, because they weren't well suited to each other."

Rosalie flinched away from the words as if they were attacking her. "How can you say they were unsuited to each other? We all idolized them and their relationship."

"Esme is asexual and Carlisle is not. They are _not_ suited for each other."

"Look, just because Carlisle's never said that he's asexual doesn't mean he's not. There's not an unmated man alive who doesn't feel sexual urges every once in awhile. Even Edward feels frisky from time to time," Emmett said callously, "I've never noticed Carlisle checking anyone out, and I definitely haven't smelt him jerking off," he said, shifting uncomfortably and feeling a tickle of embarrassment as he discussed his father's sex life.

"Only Carlisle is mated," Jasper informed them, "So he wouldn't feel any true attraction outside his matebond."

"That- " Alice gaped in shock, "Do you mean Harry?"

Jasper inclined his head.

"But he's human," Rosalie growled. "And he's a child. There's no way Carlisle could have found and mated him without us knowing."

"I don't know what Harry is, but he's not human," Jasper shared solemnly. "You all smelled him, and he appeared without any of us noticing his approach. Plus there's something else."

"What?"

"He seems… to have some sort of control over crows."

"Crows!?" Emmett guffawed.

"Yes, he was the one who figured out where Esme was. He sent out a crow to look for her and when it came back he knew Esme's flight number."

"There's no way a crow could tell him that," Rosalie snapped, "he obviously was bluffing. He found out some other way. Maybe… maybe he threatened Esme into taking that flight and is somehow tricking Carlisle into thinking they're mates. We need to see this for ourselves." She stood.

"No!" Edward and Jasper shouted together. "We saw ourselves, he's truly Carlisle's mate." Jasper rolled up his sleeve to reveal the still healing bites and scratches that Carlisle had left on him. "He's very overprotective right now, and perceived us as threats. He's on edge, and his mating instincts are running wild. He made it clear that we weren't allowed back until Monday at the earliest."

"He attacked you?" Alice asked breathlessly.

"He - we walked in on him and Harry when they were resting, and well, unclothed," Jasper admitted awkwardly, "No vampire alive would be able to resist getting defensive. He held out a surprisingly long time before jumping us, but by then he'd practically entered a frenzy."

"How did you both come away unharmed?" Emmett asked, wrapping an arm around Rosalie's shoulder and pulling her close.

"Harry really is his mate. He came close enough to the danger that Carlisle fell back to better protect him, and Harry was able to call Carlisle back from the frenzy." Jasper grimaced at the memory.

"What?" Alice pestered worriedly, "What else happened?"

"He- Harry that is,called us Carlisle's babies." His face twisted in distaste.

The dead silence was almost humorous.

* * *

"They'll be here tomorrow," Harry said quietly, interrupting the quiet. Carlisle hummed in agreement, nuzzling into Harry's hair and shifting his grip around his mate's chest. Harry was seated firmly in his lap as they lounged together in bed. "So tell me about them."

Harry's words broke the comfortable silence he'd been sharing with Carlisle. Five days had passed since Jasper and Edward had appeared, meaning it was their last day alone before the Cullen children descended upon their home tomorrow. Of course, Carlisle, knowing how mischievous his children could be, half-expected them to show up at midnight tonight.

Naturally Harry was curious about the vampires his mate had claimed as children, and wanted to know a little about the individuals he would most probably be spending the rest of his life with.

"They're wonderful, great kids, you'll love them," Carlisle assured him, petting Harry's hair, enjoying the heat of Harry's cheek pressed against his icy chest.

"If you love them they must be wonderful," Harry told him, "but what are they like?"

Carlisle thought for a moment before responding

"Emmett is a goof ball. He loves video games, wrestling, playing pranks and…"

"And Rosalie," Harry finished for him. "He loves Rosalie."

"Yes," Carlisle confirmed, "he loves Rosalie. And Rosalie of course loves him."

"What's she like?"

Carlisle chuckled a bit as he searched for the words that would capture Rose. "She was born to be an aristocrat. SHe likes being a princess, and Emmett sure treats her as one. She's prickly too, she doesn't get along very well with anyone she doesn't know and trust."

"Oh," Harry sighed involuntarily, deflating.

Carlisle's smile softened. "You may need to give her some time, but she'll come around. She'll come to love you just as she came to love everyone else in the coven."

Harry considered Carlisle's words dubiously. Carlisle had an idealistic view of the world, and he doubted the process of integrating with the family would go as smoothly as his mate hoped it would. The Cullens were already a tight knit group, they didn't need or want him interfering with their family. Nonetheless, he smiled indulgently at his mate.

"What about the others, Jasper and Alice?"

"Serious and mischievous."

"They seem like quite a pair," Harry noted.

"They are. Alice barely tops five feet, but she's a firecracker of energy. Her ability to see the future means she almost always has a lep on on everyone else, and she's not scared of taking advantage of it. She manipulates people left and right, and can't stand not being in control of a situation, but she's mostly harmless," Carlisle assured him, noting Harry's trepidation, fully aware of his justified wariness of both manipulators and seers. "She has a caring nature, so she uses her abilities to mostly tease and help her siblings, not to mention make a fortune on the stock market.

"Plus Jasper keeps her in line, he has a lot of self discipline. He was a soldier as a human and as a newborn. He has the strategic mind and the physical carriage of one. Not to mention his empathy. He'll be the first to know if someone is upset, and he'll act on it if he sees fit, but he's good at keeping out and letting people handle things on their own."

Harry was silent for a moment, contemplating the information given to him. "What about Edward?" he finally prompted.

Carlisle hesitated, unsure how to explain his eldest. "Edward is… complex. He's been alone for a long time, and his gift isolates him even more. He used to become overwhelmed b it, and it's led to him avoiding others and closing himself off. Recently he's started seeing a human girl, Bella."

"A human?"

"Yes, he can't read her mind, and her blood calls to him, so he thinks she's his mate," Carlisle explained, dragging the words out slowly with a furrowed brow.

"You don't think she is?" Harry asked concerned.

"I don't honestly know," Carlisle sighed. "He certainly loves her, there's no doubt about that. And I believe Bella loves him to."

"But…"

"But their relationship has hardly played out like a typical mateship."

"How so?" Harry asked, perking up at a potential mystery.

"Well for one, Edward's first attraction to her was as a predator to prey. He barely stopped himself from killing her. Even now that he's acknowledged her as a potential mate, he's not had any problems with mating urges."

"That could be Bella's status as a human. She's very fragile," Harry pointed out, "I've never heard of a vampire finding their mate before they were turned, you excepted of course, but I'm not exactly human."

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see," Carlisle sighed.

"Besides, not all vampires can be as insatiable as you are," Harry teased, trailing fingers along the dark purple marks Carlisle had left on his thighs just that morning. In the past couple of days Harry had gotten down to sleeping only 8 hours a night, so Carlisle had taken to waking him from his rests whenever he was feeling frisky, which was apparently all the time.

"Insatiable am I?" Carlisle smirked, running his hands up and down Harry's sides as he spooned him. Harry flushed immediately. "I suppose I should stop right now then, the vampire murmured hotly against Harry's ear, his cold breath sending shivers down Harry's spine, and his hand slipping down to palm his little love's groin where his cock was just beginning to take an interest.

"I wouldn't want to tire out my poor little human," Carlisle teased, ignoring the way Harry's eyes narrowed.

Carlisle gasped in delight as Harry undulated against him, grinding back against Carlisle's erection and allowing his head to loll back onto Carlisle's shoulder, revealing the tempting expanse of creamy neck, mottled with love bites already.

"Mmmm, Carlisle," Harry moaned.

"What's that my human?" Carlisle smirked, grinding harder into Harry's ass.

"I'm starving," he declared suddenly, hopping out of his lover's arms and sashaying nakedly from the room, leaving Carlisle bereft and gaping.

He only smirked at Carlisle's incoherent spluttering. That would show him to tease his "little human."

* * *

"Now? Can we go now?" Alice chimed anxiously.

"Hm, what does your gift tell you my response will be?" Edward snarked. "Here's a hint, it'll be the same answer as the last time you asked."

Alice huffed angrily.

"Alice," Jasper tried to placate her, "Carlisle was very clear. He doesn't want us there until tomorrow."

"But it's 11:55 PM" Alice groused, "By the time we run over there it'll be tomorrow.

"No Alice, Carlisle was very serious, he won't appreciate us finding loopholes in his instructions."

"What does it matter if we show up at night!? We're vampires. We know he's awake. Tomorrow is tomorrow!"

"Alice," Jasper growled firmly,"You're being purposefully obtuse. We were to wait until tomorrow so Harry could have time to rest and recover before meeting us. That definitely means that we shouldn't wake him up in the dead of night. That's the exact opposite of what Carlisle wants."

"I don't care about Harry's rest," Alice muttered petulantly, "Esme left us and Carlisle's ignoring us and it's all the human's fault."

"Alice, that human, for better or worse is Carlisle's mate. He will not tolerate you speaking of his mate like that," and then to soothe her wounded ego he added, "just like I would never tolerate anyone speaking of you like that."

Alice flopped dramatically into the armchair of their hotel room. "How can he be Carlisle's mate? How could Carlisle have kept this from us?" she asked thought they'd been over this multiple times in the past few days without ever figuring out the truth. "All this time Esme…"

"Look, we always knew those two didn't have a traditional mateship bond. Maybe this shouldn't have been such a surprise to us.

"They've been pretending for decades," Alice said bluntly. "Why wouldn't it be a surprise?"

"They never consummated the bond, for one thing," Jasper said dryly, "they weren't even attracted to each other."

"That's not fair," Alice snipped, "Is Esme supposed to be alone forever just because she's asexual?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Jasper intervened quickly. "What I meant is that they weren't compatible sexually, Esme is one thing, but Carlisle is hot-blooded man," he joked. He pressed on, ignoring Alice's raised eyebrows, "No, really. You lot may not have seen it because he's always so composed, but he feels arousal. I never bothered to consider it other than to pity him, but it truly doesn't make sense for Esme to be his mate."

"How great for Carlisle, he's found someone to roll over and spread 'em for him whenever he pleases," Rosalie quipped from the desk where she'd been sitting, pointedly ignoring their conversation.

"Rosalie," Alice gasped, laughter choking her voice. "That was horrible."

"That was uncalled for," Jasper glared at his sister. She pointedly ignored him, filing her nails.

"I just don't want anything to change," Alice sighed.

"It doesn't necessarily mean things are going to be worse, just different."

"Jasper, you can't possibly be suggesting things are going to be better. Our mother has flown the coup, we're probably going to have to move again, because there's no way Carlisle's going to be able to pull off another mysterious adoption that nobody had a clue about. Plus, we have to make nice with a new Daddy Dearest, who is human to boot. You can't honestly tell me you're going to be happy with a human living in the 's also the fact that he gives me splitting headaches," Alice pointed out.

"Let's not forget that he's a homewrecker," Rosalie added acerbically.

Jasper pretended Rosalie wasn't in the room. "It won't be easy, but it doesn't have to be horrible. I've never felt Carlisle's happiness so strongly before. We at least owe it to him to give this human a chance. He doesn't even smell like food."

"Why are you trying so hard to defend him!?" Rosalie snarled.

Jasper sighed, unsure how to explain. "For one, he's Carlisle's mate, and Carlisle deserves a mate. But also… his emotions are very pure. He was nervous and shy: abashed. He loves Carlisle, very truly, and when Carlisle attacked us, he was overcome with worry. He's insecure," Jasper added, thinking of the pain and self-doubt that had flashed through Harry whenever Esme's name was brought up, "but when we mentioned Esme was missing, he felt concern and compassion. I never felt anything malicious from him."

Seeing Rosalie's stormy expression, he continued, "I'm not ready to be bosom buddies with him, but I hardly think we need to plan his disappearance just yet."

Alice sighed, accepting temporary defeat, but Rosalie glared poisonously and stormed out. They watched her go, likely to find Emmett to rant to.

"What are we supposed to do until dawn then?" Alice complained.

"Why don't we go hunting," Jasper suggested, though both their eyes were a clear amber. "It won't hurt to be well fed."

"I thought you weren't worried about the thirst with this human," Alice glanced at her mate accusingly.

"It's not the human I'm worried about, it's Carlisle. His protective instincts are going haywire, and whatever we can do to put him at ease the better.

Alice merely hummed, unconvinced.

"Come on then," Jasper said with an eyeroll, "I'm sure we can find you a nice deer."

"A deer?" Alice scoffed, "You can have a deer if you want, I'm not settling for anything less than a cougar."

The couple clasped hands and sped off into the night, scattering the flock of crows gathered in the trees around the hotel.

* * *

Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Too much dialogue? Too slow? Not enough details?

The next chapter will include Harry finally meeting the coven, and we'll really be getting into the meat of things.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck to this, even though it's been ages since the last update. You're all amazing!


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